The players union claimed Wednesday that the NFL imposed a secret salary cap during the uncapped 2010 season that cost the players at least $1 billion.

The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, which oversees the Reggie White settlement covering NFL labor matters. But the league says the union has no grounds for the action and is prohibited from filing it by the collective bargaining agreement.

The complaint claims a ''conspiracy'' to set a $123 million salary cap for the 2010 season, when owners did not have the authority to do so. The Cowboys and Redskins have had their future salary caps lowered for overspending in 2010, Dallas by $10 million over two seasons, Washington by a whopping $36 million.

Both teams lost a grievance against those reductions on Tuesday.

''When the rules are broken in a way that hurts the game, we have an obligation to act. We cannot stand by when we now know that the owners conspired to collude,'' union chief DeMaurice Smith said Wednesday.

In response to the reopening of the Reggie White lawsuit, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said, ''There was no collusion. There was no agreement. These claims are totally unfounded.''

A league statement said the collective bargaining agreement signed last August to end the 4 1/2-month lockout prohibited the filing of these claims, and that players' attorneys signed a separate agreement agreeing to the terms.

But NFLPA outside counsel Jeffrey Kessler said that agreement was rejected by the court.

''The document they are referring to was not accepted by the district court in Minnesota,'' he said Wednesday. ''It was rejected and the court entered an order which only dismissed claims under White that were pending.''

The NFL also points to a clause in the latest labor contract in which the union gives up the right to sue over ''collusion with respect to any League Year prior to 2011.''

Thus, the NFL has considered the 2010 uncapped season a closed matter ever since the new labor deal was signed last summer. Clearly, the players do not, and now are seeking compensation for lost wages caused by collusion among the teams.

''Our union recently learned that there was a secret salary cap agreement in an uncapped year,'' NFL Players Association President Domonique Foxworth said. ''The complaint today is our effort to fulfill our duty to every NFL player. They deserve to know, above all, the facts and the truth about this conspiracy.''

The 2006 CBA included an uncapped 2010 season as the final year of the deal. It was thought that neither the league nor the union would want the potential chaos of a season with no salary cap, but that proved false as negotiations on a new contract stagnated.

Just over two months after that uncapped season, the league locked out the players in March 2011. The salary cap was reinstated in the new, 10-year CBA finalized last August.

But on March 12, just before free agency began, the Redskins and Cowboys had their salary caps reduced over the next two seasons. The NFLPA was involved in that process, with 28 other clubs getting a boost in their salary caps for 2012 and '13.

Oakland and New Orleans do not share in the redistributed salary cap space because they engaged in similar practices, but not to the degree of Washington and Dallas.

The union now believes Dallas and Washington were punished for exceeding a covert salary cap in 2010, not for undermining competitive balance, as the NFL has claimed.

''The league expressed their view that they thought those teams had gotten a competitive advantage,'' Kessler said. ''If we wanted other salary cap increases for the clubs (in 2012) ... the price for doing that was doing this salary cap reallocation.

''Had the union known about prior collusion, the union would never have agreed to these cap reallocations.''

The union says the league office approved contracts enabling the Redskins, Cowboys, Raiders, and Saints to exceed that ''secret, collusive salary cap.''

This is dangerous territory for any sport.

In baseball, the union filed collusion grievances following the 1985, 1986 and 1987 seasons accusing management of conspiring against free agents. After arbitrators ruled in the union's favor, management agreed to a $280 million settlement. Among the players affected were Jack Morris, Andre Dawson, Tim Raines, Jack Clark and Lance Parrish.

A triple-damages provision was inserted into the sport's labor contract in 1990.

This case is not comparable to baseball's, according to Gary Roberts, dean at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.

''With baseball players it was strictly a matter for arbitration,'' Roberts said, ''where here the union is alleging a violation of the White class action. Procedurally and substantively the claims are not that similar.

''The union's problem is not in the merits of their argument, it's in the procedural part of it. They signed a CBA that said all litigations are settled. What they're saying now is that only applied to things that 'we were aware of. We only waived and settled all claims that we knew existed. We couldn't be asked to waive any claims that we did not know existed.' ''

May 23rd, 2012, 11:30 pm

Pablo

RIP Killer

Joined: August 6th, 2004, 9:21 amPosts: 9985Location: Dallas

Re: 24Hrs after Dallas and Washington lose their appeal.....

My understanding was that the Union agreed to the penalties levied on the Boys and Skins, otherwise the Cap for this season might lowered. I'm pretty sure they have zero case.

I never understood this crap. So let me get this straight: The teams made a secret salary cap of 123 mil, and that's illegal so the players complain that they didn't get their cut. But if there was no salary cap, and teams paid on average 75 million, they would get even LESS money, but couldn't complain about it?

The players are lucky they are even being paid to play this fun (and violent) game. It should be like any job: If you don't like the pay, don't do it. You have no right to complain about how "little" you get when you make 5-10x the average salary in 1 season. You get paid several hundred thousand for a minimum of 1 season as a crap player on a crap team, more if you are any better than that. STFU and play if you accept, and GTFO if you don't.

Christ.

_________________

Pablo wrote:

the app worked OK, but it is hard to draft while driving.

May 24th, 2012, 3:55 pm

frok

Varsity Captain

Joined: August 9th, 2004, 1:51 amPosts: 296Location: kalamazoo,mi

Re: 24Hrs after Dallas and Washington lose their appeal.....

49ers wrote:

I never understood this crap. So let me get this straight: The teams made a secret salary cap of 123 mil, and that's illegal so the players complain that they didn't get their cut. But if there was no salary cap, and teams paid on average 75 million, they would get even LESS money, but couldn't complain about it?

The players are lucky they are even being paid to play this fun (and violent) game. It should be like any job: If you don't like the pay, don't do it. You have no right to complain about how "little" you get when you make 5-10x the average salary in 1 season. You get paid several hundred thousand for a minimum of 1 season as a crap player on a crap team, more if you are any better than that. STFU and play if you accept, and GTFO if you don't.

Christ.

I usually don't agree with anything you say But on this Bravo

Frok

_________________I feel more like I do now than when I first got here.

May 25th, 2012, 12:26 am

thelomasbrowns

Player of the Year - Offense

Joined: August 24th, 2010, 9:54 pmPosts: 2861

Re: 24Hrs after Dallas and Washington lose their appeal.....

49ers wrote:

I never understood this crap. So let me get this straight: The teams made a secret salary cap of 123 mil, and that's illegal so the players complain that they didn't get their cut. But if there was no salary cap, and teams paid on average 75 million, they would get even LESS money, but couldn't complain about it?

The players are lucky they are even being paid to play this fun (and violent) game. It should be like any job: If you don't like the pay, don't do it. You have no right to complain about how "little" you get when you make 5-10x the average salary in 1 season. You get paid several hundred thousand for a minimum of 1 season as a crap player on a crap team, more if you are any better than that. STFU and play if you accept, and GTFO if you don't.

Christ.

You're confusing the salary cap and the salary floor.

The relationship between the NFL and the NFLPA is governed by the collective bargaining agreement. Nothing should be happening (on either side) beyond that. I work at a large university. If my director (who is exempt) doesn't follow the CBA the university has with our office workers, there will be hell to pay. It has nothing to do with how much those employees make or whether or not they should be happy they have a job--everything has to be within the bounds of the CBA.

The last CBA called for an uncapped year if a new agreement was not reached. The owners colluded to create a cap in spite of that, and have now punished the teams that didn't follow their secret agreement. Is it any wonder there's a lawsuit?

_________________"Good teams don't worry about a whole lot of stuff. They travel, they play, they win. And it doesn't matter where they go, what the time block is, all those kinds of things. They never seem to bother teams that play well, and we want to be one of those teams." -Jim Caldwell